Amnesty International Boss Endorses "Jihad in self-defence"

Amnesty International (AI) Secretary-General Claudio Cordone has come under fire for defending jihad when it occurs in "self-defence" – a position many other human rights advocates believe "would gravely undermine the future of the human rights movement."

Cordone's comments came in response to a February 13 "Global Petition" to AI by human-rights and women's -rights advocates protesting the suspension of Gita Sahgal, a senior AI official in London.

Sahgal was suspended after the Sunday Times of Londonreported she believed Amnesty's collaboration with former Guantanamo Bay detainee Moazzem Begg "fundamentally damages" the group's reputation.

In a letter sent to senior AI officials, Sahgal charged that Amnesty has mistakenly aligned itself with Begg and his organization Cageprisoners, which calls itself a human-rights organization working to "raise awareness of the plight of prisoners" held in the war on terror.

According to the Sunday Times, the prisoners it championed have included "Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, and Abu Qatada, a preacher described as Osama Bin Laden's 'European ambassador.' "

Begg and Cageprisoners are also reported to have developed a relationship with Anwar al-Awlaki, the Al Qaeda cleric who endorsed the failed Christmas Day plane bombing near Detroit and who became a confidant of Nidal Malik Hasan, charged with carrying out the Nov. 5 Fort Hood massacre. Read more here.

In the "Global Petition" sent to AI, the coalition of liberal human-rights advocates criticized what they called "U.S./NATO imperialism." But the bulk of the letter consisted of criticism of Sahgal's suspension and warnings about the pitfalls of negotiating with the Taliban and trying to advance human rights by working with "anti-democratic" groups.

On February 28, Cordone responded with a letter defending AI's work with Begg and Cageprisoners. Begg "speaks powerfully from personal experience" about the abuses at the U.S.-operated Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba, Cordone wrote, and advocates detainees' due process rights within "the same framework of universal human rights standards that we are promoting."

Cordone added that Begg and Cageprisoners' advocacy of "jihad in self defence" is not antithetical to human rights and that Begg is the victim of "many distortions, innuendoes and 'guilt by association' " charges.

In response, the initiators of the Global Petition expressed dismay about Amnesty's endorsement of a "defensive" jihad. They noted that such a call "is a thread running through many fundamentalist and specifically 'salafi-jihadi' texts. It is mentioned by Abdullah Azzam, mentor of Osama bin Laden, and founder of Lashkar e Tayyaba. It is the argument of 'defensive jihad' that the Taleban uses to legitimize its anti human rights actions such as the beheading of dissidents, including members of minority communities, and the public lashing of women."

Reader comments on this item

Cordone needs to resign

Submitted by Michael Sykora, Apr 6, 2010 01:38

Cordone needs to resign

Is the commode commenting on the color of the bathtub?

Apr 5, 2010 16:48

Jihad as self-defense? If there is such a thing as "US/NATO Imperialism", does it not use precisely the same rationale as "Jihad in self-defense" - that of promoting higher standards of human rights? And yet one gets AI's 'violence pass' and the other doesn't. Just what qualifies one for this little permission slip? Do you have to make below a certain income level? Wear the proper clothing? Use the right terms ("Jihad good, Crusade bad")? Make the right friends? Declare the right enemies? Some codification might help smooth the path for future applicants for AI's vaunted Red Badge of Righteous Violence.

Fat chance of that!!!

Submitted by SOS, Apr 5, 2010 14:37

You forgot to put "APRIL FOOLS'" after that last sentence. I mean that's like asking water not to be wet!!

Thanks AI

Submitted by Misha, Apr 5, 2010 12:54

We must thank Amnesty for finally confirming that it is really an anti-American anti-Israel hate group and not a "human rights" group. AI has finally taken off the sheep's disguise and revealed itself as a tool of Islamonazi wolves and savages. Since Amnesty has allied itself with a Taliban thug who thinks that tossing acid into the face of Afghan schoolgirls is AOK, AI gangsters have no right to complain when the violence that they condone by their friends is turned against them.

If lefties want to play, then they must pay.

Stunning Admission of Triple Standards, and Hatred of the West

Submitted by Eric Roth, Apr 5, 2010 12:32

Thank you for sharing this invaluable, concise article that clears away layers of ambigious nonsense from Amnesty International.

It's simply stunning that AI would endorse jihad - an obscene, violent religious concept used for conquest and beheadings - to justify their support of bigoted terrorists. They clearly have joined the hard cultural left, and forgotten their roots in individual rights.

Yet I can't pretend to be shocked. I attended an Amnesty International event three years ago in Los Angeles at the Museum of Tolerance. The speaker was from Pakistan, and condemning acid attacks against young girls which is a huge human rights problem. Yet the speaker, educated at Berkeley, kept insisting this growing trend among Pakistani Muslims was an American import because of some obscure American novel in the 1970s. It was simply shocking. America - and the West - were somehow to blame for psychotic, violent acts of ignorant, usually illiterate peasants in Pakistan.

When I asked why she didn't frame her defense of individual and women's rights as universal rights that came from the West, (unlike throwing acid in the faces of young girls), she lectured me of my narrow Western prejudices. You could feel the crowd's negative energy. It was frightening. Later, several young people confronted me in the lobby for my imperialism. Think Alice in Wonderland - with a very disturbing twist.

At that point, I vowed to never give another dime to Amnesty Internation - and realized that their support for human rights was second to their ideological crusade against the United States. Naturally, I was very disappointed.

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